The present invention relates to a high-explosive projectile for the generation of fragments including a projectile body containing an explosive charge which is detonated by a suitable fuse, and having a circumferential rotating and/or sealing band disposed on the tail region of the projectile body.
Such a high-explosive projectile in the form of a spinstabilized artillery projectile of 105 mm caliber is disclosed, for example, in Waffentechnisches Handbuch [Handbook on Weaponry], 6th Edition, 1983, page 467, FIG. 1102 and in Rheinmetall Handbook on Weaponry, First English Edition, 1982, page 509, FIG. 1102.
In fin-stabilized form, such a high-explosive projectile is employed, for example, as a multi-purpose highexplosive ammunition for the Leopard II combat tank. This multi-purpose high-explosive projectile which includes either an impact or a proximity fuse, and which further includes a forwardly oriented shaped charge liner for the penetration of armor plate and a thin-walled projectile body for a lateral explosive effect against soft or semi-hard targets.
To ensure the required stability when such highexplosive projectiles are fired from large-caliber gun barrels, these spin and/or fin-stabilized high-explosive projectiles are given relatively thick walls particularly in their tail regions and behind the rotating and/or sealing band (hereinafter sometimes referred to collectively as a driving band). The driving band acts to seal the projectile against the inner surface of the weapon barrel and, in the case of spin stabilized projectiles, to rotate or spin the projectile as it travels through the rifled barrel. Such thick wall regions cause the fragments produced from these regions to become somewhat coarse. Therefore, the fragmentation characteristics of the projectile base and the lower thick-walled tail region of the body are very different than those of the thinner-walled frontal region. Thus, the thick-walled tail region, for example, is broken up into only a few, rather large and thus comparatively slow fragments, while the thinner-walled frontal region breaks into smaller lighter faster fragments.
If, however, for tactical reasons, it is desired to have many smaller equal-sized fragments, additional structural measures, such as, for example, worked-in predetermined break locations, become necessary to produce structured fragments. However, these structural measures can interfere with the projectile's strength a firing.